Glancing back at the Rideau Institute blog posts for 2015 gives some idea of the range of important foreign, defence and security policy issues with which we dealt.

We begin with the first of many posts on Canada’s grotesque $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia: Saudi arms deal makes mockery of Canadian values (Peggy Mason, Embassy, 21 January 2015). This is an issue which will test the seriousness of the new government’s commitment to human rights.

On the hugely important issue of Bill C-51, here is my personal favourite (which inexplicably only appears on the Ceasefire.ca website): Mary Walsh takes on Stephen Harper and Bill C-51 (CBC television, 12 March 2015). The new government has promised Parliament will get a meaningful opportunity to review and amend (and we hope largely discard) this egregious legislation.

We have been calling for a full public and parliamentary review of Canadian defence and security policy since February of 2015. See A Canadian defence and security policy for the 21st century (Peggy Mason, Embassy, 13 May 2015). The Liberal government has promised some sort of review early in their mandate but we await details of its scope and public input.

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The Russian [nuclear] modernization program was spurred by the US withdrawal, under President George W. Bush in 2002, from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Moscow had for four decades regarded as a central pillar of strategic stability. Moscow’s subsequent failure to reach a new agreement with the United States on missile defenses, and the collapse […]